Faster computer processor frequencies and multi-core designs are increasing the amount computing power in computer systems. However, bottlenecks within these systems limit the full benefits of this increased processing power. One such bottleneck can arise on a system when a background task receives sufficient processor cycles to generate enough disk access to congest the disk and cause a foreground task to be slow as a result of the disk congestion. This and other bottlenecks can create visibly long delays in user response. Further, such bottlenecks can be so extreme as to cause negative performance scaling where a faster processor actually delivers a visibly slower user experience due to congestion in the storage or other subsystem.